


Aftermath

by redwoodroots



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Atlantis AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-19
Updated: 2018-09-19
Packaged: 2019-07-14 12:03:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16040099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redwoodroots/pseuds/redwoodroots
Summary: *Ahem* SO!  This is a continuation of the Atlantis AU!  Started by the amazing astriiformes and saisai-chan (on tumblr), continued by the amazing writer amadscientistapproaches (on both tumblr and AO3!)  Check out their stuff, they're amazing!The AU is based on the Disney movie Atlantis - Ford got ahold of the journal and joined an expedition to find at Atlantis.  The expedition just so happens to be led by Bill and include his estranged brother Stanley!  (Yikes!)  Royal twins Dipper and Mabel are there to greet them when they finally reach the lost city.  When Bill attempts to steal Atlantis' sacred Crystal, it bonds with Mabel.  (Double yikes!)  Dipper, Stan, and Ford join forces to rescue her!By the end of the rescue mission, Atlantis is safe, Stan and Ford have made up, and the two brothers have put their past behind them.  But there are still a few things for both sets of twins to work out in the aftermath.





	Aftermath

**Author's Note:**

> *Ahem* SO! This is a continuation of the Atlantis AU! Started by the amazing astriiformes and saisai-chan (on tumblr), continued by the amazing writer amadscientistapproaches (on both tumblr and AO3!) Check out their stuff, they're amazing!
> 
> The AU is based on the Disney movie Atlantis - Ford got ahold of the journal and joined an expedition to find at Atlantis. The expedition just so happens to be led by Bill and include his estranged brother Stanley! (Yikes!) Royal twins Dipper and Mabel are there to greet them when they finally reach the lost city. When Bill attempts to steal Atlantis' sacred Crystal, it bonds with Mabel. (Double yikes!) Dipper, Stan, and Ford join forces to rescue her! 
> 
> By the end of the rescue mission, Atlantis is safe, Stan and Ford have made up, and the two brothers have put their past behind them. But there are still a few things for both sets of twins to work out in the aftermath.

“Dipper?”

He looked up. He'd been sitting on the steps of the pool that led down to the mural. 

“Hey, Mabel.”

“What's wrong? Are you still thinking about Bill? You know Grunkle Ford's been researching that stuff. If he _is_ still out there, we'll get him!” She mimed boxing. “Left hook, POW! Just like Stan!”

He smiled weakly. 

“So, not Bill then,” she said, lowering her fists. “You still mad at Grunkle Stan?”

“No,” he said quietly. He looked back down at the pool. “It's just...why didn't it choose me?”

“Huh?”

“The Crystal. The Heart of Atlantis. It – I felt it testing us both, down in the chamber. Trying to figure out which one of us to use. Why didn't it choose me?”

She nudged him. “You sorry you missed out on an epic glowy fight thing with a buttload of glory attached?”

“No...well, kind of,” he admitted, half-smiling. “But I mean, you were up there, and I was just _watching_. And yeah it was great that you got to see Mom and Dad, and I'm happy for you, but at the time I thought maybe you might – might join them and then _never come back_. And you'd be in that crystal forever and it wouldn't be the same not having you here next to me, and every second of that fight I kept thinking was another second closer to never getting you back –” He cut off as his throat closed up. 

“Oh, Dipper...” She scooted closer and wrapped both arms around him. “Dipper, I promise, I will _always_ come back to you. No matter what. Even if I had to stay glowy and sparkly, and talk with ten voices at once, I will come back.”

“I love you,” Dipper said, his voice hitching as he buried his face in her shoulder. His arms came up around her. “God, Mabel, I thought I was going to lose you forever.”

“You got me back,” Mabel soothed, stroking her brother's hair. “It's okay, Dipper.”

“This could happen again.” He pulled back, wiped his face and stood up. “I'm not letting it happen again. If that means we end up leaving Atlantis, or just staying and ruling together, or whatever, I won't let it happen again. I'm going to go look at the journal.” He turned and started down the mossy path. “Ford already taught me to read some of it. Maybe there's something in there we can use to better protect the city, so it won't ever get that bad.”

“I'm coming too!” Mabel scrambled to her feet and pattered after him. “The pictures in that book are so pretty! There's this one on page 53 that has a huge lobster in it and it looks exactly like Crabbers! Oh and there's this other one on page 91...”

 

Ford listened to them leave. He'd been studying a mural on a ruin close by. He hadn't even noticed that the twins were there until Mabel started talking, and after that it seemed rude to intrude. Part of him, though, had desperately wanted to talk to them. 

_How do you do that?_ he wanted to ask. _If I had been Dipper, I wouldn't have bothered talking – just gone straight to trying to solve the problem myself. How do the two of you always end up working together?_

He tried to return to his study of the mural, but he couldn't focus. With a sigh, he set down his sketchbook. 

His thoughts went, inevitably, to his wayward twin brother. He and Stan had mostly made up when they realized they would have to save Mabel from Bill. But there was still an awkwardness there, a sense of distance. 

He tried to shrug it off. Atlantis was saved, he could study it undisturbed for years, and there was very little chance that Stan would cause further trouble (at least on Bill's scale). Everything was fine. 

He realized he wasn't going to get any more work done. He tucked the sketchbook back into his pack and started down the trail after the twins. 

When he reached the palace, Dipper and Mabel were standing around a table to one side of the throne, heads bowed over the Shepherd's Journal. A distant relative of theirs, Pacifica, was sitting on the throne. She was snapping orders at her personal stylists, issuing decrees to harried-looking officials, and shooting lethal looks at Stan. He was casually sitting with his back against the throne, popping grapes in his mouth one at a time. (They weren't really grapes, they were a distant relative of the fruit, but it was close enough.)

Ford sighed. “Must you always antagonize?” he said to Stan. 

“Must you always show off with Scrabble words?” Stan shot back, and flicked a grape at him. 

Ford turned away with disgust. What was he thinking, getting so nostalgic over Stan? His brother was as immature and annoying as always. 

“How's the reading going?” he asked instead, walking towards the twins. They glanced up and smiled at him. 

“Pretty good,” Dipper said. 

“ _Pretty_ good? Try _beautiful_ good!” Mabel punched her brother's arm. Ford winced slightly; that's what he and Stan used to do. “This nerd's practically got the whole book memorized by now!”

“Well, at least the first eighty pages,” Dipper said sheepishly. 

A gravelly voice snorted behind them. “Sounds like another nerd I know.”

Ford turned and scowled at Stan. “Now, what, Stanley?”

He frowned. “What, you got a problem with me?”

Ford didn't deign to answer. He turned back to the twins. 

“Hey!” He felt a hand grab his shoulder. “I thought we made up already! What is your deal, Sixer?”

“My 'deal'?!” Ford shrugged off the hand and turned to face him. “My deal, Stanley, is that you haven't changed at all. You're still some money-loving freeloader munching grapes like you own the city!”

“ _Thank_ you,” Pacifica interjected. 

Stan scowled. “The heck I don't own it, I helped save the frigging place, remember?!”

“Only after Mabel was kidnapped by an interdimensional demon –”

“I said I was _sorry_ –”

“– who you worked with for money –”

“You don't know what my life was like –”

“No, Stan, I didn't, but you're still exactly the same reckless idiot who got kicked out of our house four years ago and for all I know you could just up and leave the second some money-making scheme pops into your brain!” 

Ford hadn't even realized that he'd been worried about it until it came out of his mouth, but he knew it was true. He stood glaring at Stan, his chest tight and his throat sore from shouting. Stan was standing there white as paper, his mouth set in a grim line. Neither of them looked away. 

The courtyard was deadly quiet. 

“I – said – I – was – _sorry_ ,” Stan gritted out finally. His voice was strangled and Ford saw him swallow, telltale signs his brother was still too stubborn to cry. 

Ford lowered his voice slightly. “I know you mean it, and we've settled the past, but we both know it'll just take the right deal to come along and you'll leave us and sell us out all over again!”

“No I wouldn't!”

“Give me one reason why not!”

“Because the money I was making wasn't for me!” He jabbed Ford hard in the chest. “It was for _you_ , alright? So you could go to that stupid college or whatever! I screwed up your chances of getting a scholarship so I figured I'd pay for it myself and then you'd forgive me!”

Ford looked surprised. “You – you were?”

“ _Yes!_ Only then you showed up on this 'dang fool expedition' – Tyler Cutebiker's words, not mine – when I didn't think you'd even be out of school for another five years! What was I gonna say? 'Oh hey Ford could you maybe skip this expedition even though it's the trip you've literally dreamed about your whole life so that you don't have to watch me do lucrative criminal activity'?!”

“I'm kinda glad you didn't,” Dipper said in a small voice. “Otherwise the four of us never have met.” 

They both jumped. For a second Ford had forgotten they had an audience. 

“Uh...sorry,” Stan told the twins. 

“No, no, don't be sorry!” Dipper said. 

“Yeah!” added Mabel. “I know you guys made up or something while I was all glittery, but you guys can't fix everything in one conversation! I am formally prescribing three heart-to-hearts per day, with me as supervisor! You guys need some major brotherly bonding!”

“Too much bonding for me,” Pacifica said, flipping her hair. “Go do whatever touchie-feelie stuff somewhere else. _Some_ of us have a country to run.”

“Whatever,” Stan grumbled, stuffing the rest of the grapes in his pocket. 

Ford rolled his eyes. “It can't have been all about me,” he said to Stan, referring back to his brother's comments on making money. “I have a feeling part of the cash you made had 'yacht' written all over it.”

“Well, yeah, guy's gotta live somewhere!”

Ford snorted. 

“What's a yacht?” Dipper asked. 

Stan grinned. “It's a five-star hotel on rudders, kid. Was gonna buy a real beaut, name her Stan O' War II, go sailin' –”

“'Stan O' War II'?” Ford repeated, and Stan turned red. 

“I mean, uh...”

“We have a boat like that,” Mabel spoke up. “It's a big royal one, only me 'n' Dipper've never used it 'cuz we're such good swimmers. Wanna see?”

“Uh,” Stan stammered, but Mabel grabbed his hand and started pulling.

“C'mon! Dipper, you grab Grunkle Ford! Let's go let's go let's go!”

Stan looked back at Ford, his expression equal parts bewildered, amused, and anxious. Ford let out a snort of laughter. 

“Well,” he said with a small grin, “at least having a yacht will remove the temptation for more 'lucrative criminal activity.'”

“I wouldn't count on that,” Stan and Mabel said at once. 

All four of them burst out laughing.

**Author's Note:**

> Uuuum, tada? I hope everyone enjoyed it, I actually only discovered this AU today thanks to amadscientistapproaches, but the idea grabbed me by the muse and would NOT let me go XD This will probably stay as a one-shot unless I get requests for more. 
> 
> Thanks again to astriiformes, saisai-chan, and amadscientistapproaches for making such an awesome AU! I hope this did justice to your incredible ideas!


End file.
